The present invention relates to an image forming system.
An image forming apparatus system has been proposed, wherein the image forming apparatus is provided with a post-processing apparatus for post-processing a recording sheet with an image having been formed thereon by an image forming apparatus.
For example, a recording sheet processing apparatus mounted on an image forming apparatus as an image forming system may be provided with a recording sheet ejection apparatus that aligns the ends of a plurality of recording sheets with an image formed thereon by an image forming apparatus and provides a post-processing such as stapling and then ejects the sheets. In such a recording sheet processing apparatus, a device for aligning a recording sheet bundle, a device for binding a recording sheet bundle, a device for ejection of recording sheets and others have been controlled such that when a recording sheet handling error such as a jam has occurred in the image forming apparatus, the bundle of recording sheets has to be ejected immediately without being post-processed and the job has to be suspended due to the difficultly of job recovery. After recovery of the error, the job is resumed from the beginning.
In recent years, an image forming apparatus provided with the following functions has been proposed (e.g. in Patent Document 1). The apparatus is controlled so that when information notifying that a recording sheet is placed in an abnormal state has been received, the recording sheet is loaded on a processed recording sheet stacking device and the current job is suspended. In response to the job cancellation information, the recording sheet conveyance device is controlled in such a way that the recording sheet located on the processed recording sheet stacking device is ejected without being processed. Upon receipt of information of resuming the operation, the recording sheet processing device and recording sheet conveyance device are controlled in such a way that the recording sheet loaded on the recording sheet stacking device is processed and ejected. This arrangement is intended to eliminate the wasteful consumption of the recording sheet, thereby improving the productivity and usability.
However, if the job is suspended during the production of a saddle stitched booklet as a post-processing of the recording sheet, the job will be suspended with the recording sheet being loaded on the stacking device. When job cancellation information has been received, a bundle of recording sheets are ejected without being bound by stapling. If the sheets are not bound by stapling, there is an upper limit to the number of recording sheet to be fed as a bundle. When the number of the recording sheets has exceeded the upper limit, the user has to open the door of the post-processing apparatus to take out the bundle of recording sheets.
[Patent Document 1] Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-341911